Category: Software

Cassettes

This private media converter runs locally in your browser

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Sometimes, you may need to convert a file to another format. Maybe it is because the original file format is not supported by your application or a service, or because you would like to reduce its size.

Plenty of tools exist to do that using dedicated programs on all major operating systems. Many are easy to use, but it may still be necessary to download and install a program before it can be used.

File Converter is a free private online service that supports media conversions without all of that. Just launch the dedicated website of the service and start converting. There is no need to install software or extensions, and the developer says that everything happens right in the browser.

The main file converter interface.

In other words, you do not need an active Internet connection to convert files. In theory at last. Here is why:

  • To access the site, you do need to be online (there is no offline mode)
  • Furthermore, the FFMpeg WASM file needs to be downloaded.

Good news is that your files are not transferred to a server on the Internet during the process.

As far as file support is concerned, it is pretty good. The service supports a wide range of image, video, and audio file formats. To name a few: job, png, webp, webm, mp4, or mp3.

Use of the service is super-simple. Drop files on the designated area on the webpage, or click on it to open a file browser. Once you have added at least one supported file, pick the desired output format from the convert to menu.

Last step is to click on the convert files button to get the process started. Since it happens locally, performance depends on the local machine.

What are the downsides?

There are not many, but if you have converted media in the past you may have noticed that I did not mention customizations.

The reason for that is simple: there are not any. You cannot change anything, including:

  • Quality of images or audio files.
  • Resolution of videos.

If you need that, you need to find a different tool for the job.

Also, the digital file needs to be on the local device already. This is true for the majority of converters, maybe even all though.

Closing Words

If you need to convert a batch of media files to a different format, without changing anything else about them, then File Converter may be a suitable tool for the job.

If you need more control, you could check out the native FFMPEG or other programs, such as Handbrake for video, fre:ac for audio, or XnConvert for images.

What about you? Do you use online or offline media converters? If so, which do you use and why? Feel free to leave a comment with your preferred tools below.

Windows 11 Start Menu Companion Phone Link

Microsoft should add an option to hide the Windows Start menu

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

I use the Windows Start menu a few times per year. It is been replaced by the taskbar and other means to launch programs.

While I run a few searches per year, which open in the Start menu, I do not really use it for anything else. Also, I prefer to use the third-party tool Everything Search for searches, as it is better in most regards.

I have no need for the Start menu anymore

The Windows Start menu offers just a few functions:

  • Launch pad for installed apps.
  • Interface for search results.
  • Shutting down, logging out, or switching users.

I do not need these, with the exception of the occasional use for searches. Also, Microsoft is adding more and more elements to the Start menu that I do not need or want.

I’m talking about the recommendations section that you cannot disable fully, as well as various placements for what I would call advertisement for Microsoft-owned subscription services.

Launch pad for installed apps

All apps that I use regularly are pinned to the taskbar. To launch apps not pinned there, I have the following options:

  • Runbox: using Windows-R to launch, is fast. You need to know the name or shortcut though.
  • Terminal: not as straightforward as Runbox, still might appeal to some.
  • Search: the Search is linked to the Start menu, but it does not need it.
  • File Explorer: manually launching an executable, e.g., a portable app that is not listed in the Start menu by default anyway.

Interface for search results

Search and Start menu are two separate functions, but they are linked as they use the same hull.

It would probably be easy enough to separate them, or split them again. Also, tools like Everything offer a better search experience in many cases.

Sign out or shut down

Windows offers plenty of options to do these, including:

  • Right-clicking the Start button.
  • Using Ctrl-Alt-Del.
  • Running shutdown /f from the command prompt window.

The Start menu is not going anywhere, quite the contrary

Microsoft works constantly on changing the start menu of its Windows operating system. It introduced the dual layout of the start menu in Windows 11 and has tweaked it since then.

It is also working on adding new account functionality to the start menu and extensions, which display content on the sides.

I do not really know how many Windows users use the Start menu on a regular basis. Many might. An option to hide the Start button would be an option to give users the option.

What about you? Do you use the Start menu on Windows? If so, for what specifically? Feel free to write a comment down below.

Windows 11: Microsoft bundling controls for recommendations and offers

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

One of the main points of criticism in regards to the ever increasing number of recommendations and offers in Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system is that they cannot be managed from a central location.

If you want to turn them all off elegantly, you either have to go through various sections, or use a third-party application like WinAero Tweaker, or O&O’s ShutUp10++, or one of the many other tools that help users do that.

Recommendations & offers in Windows 11 Settings

Windows 11 Recommendations & Offers Setting
New group of Settings to control ads and promotions in Windows 11. Image source: Phantom of Earth

Microsoft is working on introducing a central location for recommendations and offers. While it is doubtful that this will cover all promotions that Microsoft throws at users nowadays, it at least merges related settings from various locations into a single group in the Settings app.

Discovered by Phantom of Earth and published on X, Recommendations & offers provides the following options at the time of writing:

  • Personalized offers — Get personalized tips, ads, and recommendations based on Windows activity.
  • Allow websites to access my language list.
  • Improve Start and search results — By tracking which apps get opened.
  • Show notifications in Settings.
  • Recommendations and offers in Settings — Allow Windows to show product recommendations and offers in Settings.
  • Advertising ID.

The new group is found under Settings > Privacy & Security. You do need to run the latest Beta of Windows 11 and may need to enable it by running the command .\vivetool /enable /id:49666228,48433719 from an elevated PowerShell prompt.

Closing Words

Clearly, this new group of Settings is still inferior to what tweaking apps offer. It may still expose more of these settings to users who do not use the tweakers or configure their systems using Registry tweaks or policies.

What is your take on this new group of settings? Move in the right direction? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Ice

This free Windows app promises to make your PC run cooler

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Heat is a major problem for electronic devices, especially in the Summer months. Overheating may lead to a whole range of issues, including crashes or reduced performance.

To combat this, PC users have discovered thousands of solutions. From pointing a fan at the PC during the hottest hours to liquid cooling systems or reducing the voltage and frequency of core components such as the processor.

Camomile is a free app that promises to do the latter. It reduces voltage and frequency of the processor to bring down its temperature. I took the app for a test and it surely dropped the temp from 43 degrees Celsius to 36 degrees Celsius in a matter of minutes.

The app displays the current temperature in its interface. I ran several other temperature apps beside it to check the accuracy, and it was good.

Camomile App for Windows interface
App drops temperature of the processor when run

This comes with a bit of a trade-off, as it works similarly to energy-saving techniques. In short, performance may drop slightly when the app is doing its work.

Still, if you are in a dire situation, with CPU temps reaching much higher degrees than I experienced, then you may not mind as much.

Lowering has additional positive effects, including:

  • It may extend battery life.
  • It may reduce the fan noise.

Wayne mentioned the app over on Betanews. Some users reported that Malwarebytes was flagging it as a PUP. Similarly, Dr.Web and CrowdStrike Falcon are flagging the software as well. I did not notice any issues during installation of afterwards.

It does not offer much in terms of functionality. You can enable cooling mode and disable it. Other than that, it displays a temperature graph and temperature information for other components.

Closing Words

There are numerous ways to cool down PC components, especially in the Summer months. Sometimes, all that is needed is to get rid of the pesky dust to get the fans operating at full capacity again.

At other times, you could consider installing more fans or fans that are more powerful than what you have currently. While water-based cooling solutions are cool, they also require a level of expertise that many PC users shy away from.

An app like Camomile may also be sufficient. Surely, you may also use different tools for the same purpose. With that said, Camomile is easy to use and it certainly does reduce the temperature of the processor by a few degrees when run.

What about you? How do you fight heat in Summer to keep your PCs and devices going?

Microsoft continues to abuse Windows for advertising

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

If you’d ask a 100 Windows users whether they wanted ads displayed to them on a regular basis, chance is that the vast majority would answer with “no”.

This is not keeping Microsoft from pushing the boundaries and introduces more ads in Windows. While Microsoft uses terms such as recommendations, many of them are at their core still ads.

Up until now, most recommend to use Microsoft services, including Game Pass, OneDrive, or Microsoft 365. These are all subscription-based services. While they offer value, it is clearly not for everyone.

Microsoft is already pushing OneDrive via the recently introduced Windows Backup feature. This is not a full backup solution, as it limits backups to a few folders and some data.

While free to use, apart from the Microsoft account requirement, Microsoft is pushing two services with its recommendations:

  • Microsoft accounts, as these are required to make use of the OneDrive backup feature.
  • Microsoft 365 and OneDrive subscriptions, to increase the default 5 gigabytes of storage.

The first is obvious. You need a Microsoft account to use it. Microsoft has not made it a secret that it prefers this account type over local accounts. Among the reasons are better customer retention and that it gathers more data about customers.

The default 5 gigabyte limit is shared across several services, with backup being one of them. It is relatively easy to get near the limit, considering that Pictures, Music, and Video folders can be backed up.

Add the fact that backups will run automatically starting with Windows 11 version 24H2, and you end up with lots of customers who need more storage for the backup solution. This in term brings in revenue for Microsoft, as subscriptions increase.

Backup ads in the Notification area

Reports suggest that Microsoft is pushing a rather scary sounding notification to user systems. It states “Your PC is not fully backed up” and shows a yellow exclamation-mark image.

It is interesting to note that Windows Backup will never fully back up the system. Microsoft’s notification may lull some users into a sense of security when they activate the “back up now” button.

These backups won’t help if Windows fails to boot, for instance after a botched security or Windows update.

You need a full backup solution for that, and that is something that Microsoft does not offer.

While you can dismiss the notification, it will reemerge eventually. There does not seem to be an option to turn it off entirely, at least not in the Windows Settings or in the Backup app.

Closing Words

The recommendations seem to generate enough revenue or other positive effects for Microsoft to ignore the criticism surrounding them. Whether there will be a breaking point remains to be seen.

For now, expect more recommendations / ads in Windows going forward.

Do you mind this on your systems, or are you unaffected?

How to use Windows’ emergency restart feature

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

If you are a Windows user, you may have encountered situations where the system appears to be stuck. Programs do not open at all anymore or very slowly, or you see a dreaded loading animation on the screen that does not go away, no matter how long you wait.

The good old “have you tried turning it off and on again” fixes these kinds of issues often.

The IT Crowd: Have you tried turning it off and on again

Sometimes however, turning off the computer or restarting it is not as easy as it may sound. What if clicking on the Start icon does nothing? While there are numerous ways of turning off the PC, not all are equal.

Note: if nothing works, pressing and holding the power button of the PC will restart the computer eventually.

Emergency Restart in Windows

One of the ways that users tackle an unresponsive PC is by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del. This keyboard combination displays several actions in a fullscreen window.

The main actions are lock, switch user, sign out, and cancel. There is also a power button in the lower right corner, which you may use to restart or shut down the PC.

The Ctrl-Alt-Del window of the Windows operating system

What many may not know is that there is also an emergency restart option hidden on the screen. All you have to do to activate it is to hold down the Ctrl-key on the keyboard before clicking on the power button.

Instead of displaying the restart and shut down options, Windows shows the emergency restart screen.

The Emergency restart option of the Windows operating system

Here, you simply click on the ok button to restart the PC immediately.

Windows informs you that any work that has not been saved may be lost during the process. It even warns, rather dramatically, that this should only be used as the last resort.

Closing Words

So, if you run into a situation where the usual options to restart the Windows PC may not work, you could give this emergency restart option a try, provided that you can still get into the Ctrl-Alt-Del interface.

What is your preferred way of restarting or shutting down Windows when things do not work anymore?

Thunderbird 128

Thunderbird 128 Email client is now available

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The team behind the open source email client has released the long-awaited Thunderbird 128 to the public. The version is not yet available as an update, only as a direct download from the official website.

You can upgrade from current stable versions of Thunderbird to the new release, but need to run the installer to do that.

As far as system requirements are concerned, Thunderbird 128 won’t run anymore on pre-Windows 10 or macOS 10.15 devices. Users who use add-ons or customizations may run into issues, but this is the case for every new major release. It may be a good idea to wait a few release cycles as many of the issues may have been sorted out by then.

The official release notes are quite long, which is to be expected.

Thunderbird 128: a quick rundown

While there have been a good number of changes, Thunderbird 128 looks and behaves for the most part like Thunderbird 115. This is good for consistency.

There are differences though. UI density, for example, affects the multi-message view now as well. I prefer to use compact, as it shows more messages and information on the screen at the same time.

You can change density and other layout-related preferences by selecting View of the menu at the top.

On Windows, Thunderbird is now using the native notifications system. There is also support for operating system accent colors and custom account colors are now shown in the form field when composing a message.

If you want to display full names and email addresses of all recipients in a message list, you can do so now with the new preference mail.addressDisplayFormat. This needs to be set in the advanced configuration, which you may access via Tools > Settings > Config Editor.

The new version improves its OpenPGP implementation as well.

Closing Words

Thunderbird 128 looks like a polished version of Thunderbird 115. The big update does not interfere with the layout nearly as much as the last major update of the email client.

Many of the changes are cosmetic in nature, but these do not get in the way either. This may be different for users who use lots of add-ons or customization options, as extensions need to be updated to remain compatible with the new Thunderbird release.

Again, most users may want to wait a couple of months before they start considering upgrading to the new releases.

What about you? Do you use Thunderbird? What is your take on the new Thunderbird 128?

AppBuster update adds recommendations and ARM support

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

O&O Software’s free AppBuster app for Windows was one of the first programs that I reviewed on this site.

The latest update introduces several important changes and features that deserve to be mentioned here o this site.

If you have used AppBuster in the past you know what the program is about. It lets you uninstall many built-in or user-installed programs on Windows devices.

O&O AppBuster 1.4.1345 is now available. The application is still free to use. Here are the three core changes introduced in the new version:

  • O&O AppBuster is now compatible with Windows on ARM devices.
  • The app makes recommendations now regarding the programs that you may want to consider for removal.
  • It detects new apps and programs that were installed since the last run of the application.

Let us take a closer look at one of the new features.

Recommendations

O&O AppBuster recommendations for removal

Tech savvy users know which apps to remove from their devices and which not. The same may not be true for users who are not that interested in tech.

The recommendation system is for these users. It highlights apps that the users may want to take a closer look at when it comes to picking apps for removal.

Recommendations may either suggest to remove a program or may highlight an app as optional.

On a test Windows 11 system, it recommended to remove the Feedback Hub, Game Bar, and Microsoft 365 (Office) apps among several other Microsoft apps.

It listed other Microsoft apps as optional, as well as non-Microsoft apps, including Adobe Acrobat Reader.

AppBuster does not reveal why it is making a recommendation. It is certainly possible that it recommends removing apps that the user uses frequently or even regularly.

It would be great if the program could take into account last use dates or other information to improve recommendations.

The other changes

Support for ARM platform starting with Windows 11 version 24H2 is a welcome addition, considering that Microsoft is pushing Windows on the platform.

For now, it is the only Copilot+ PCs ready platform, but this will change once AMD and Intel release new silicon.

Detection of new apps can also be useful. It makes it easier to spot new apps that Microsoft sneaked-in, and also user-installed apps.

Closing Words

O&O AppBuster continues to be an excellent piece of software. Yes, there are other programs out there that can also remove apps in bulk. It is perfectly fine to continue using those.

My favorite is winget right now, as it is easy to use and very powerful.

You can download the latest AppBuster version from the official website.

Do you use programs like AppBuster to remove apps and programs that you do not need? Let us know in the comment section down below!

Password

How to create a local account password reset option in Windows

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Using a local account in Windows 10 or 11 is good for privacy. It keeps the account local and reveals less information and data to Microsoft.

One of the drawbacks is that you cannot easily reset the account password in case you forget it. In fact, apart from brute forcing or hacking your way back in, there exist only two options to deal with the issue:

  • Answer security questions — This works only if you set a password during account creation and can remember them.
  • Use a password reset disk — This option is only available if you created one in the past.

Most Windows users may not have access to these, however.

Security questions

Windows 11 Creation of a local account
Creation of a local account on a German Windows 11 system.

When you create a new local account in the Settings app, you may add three security questions and their answers.

Note that this is an optional step, if you do not add a password to the account. If you do add a password, which you should in most cases, you are required to select three security questions and type answers for them before you may continue.

While it may be tempting to answer them truthfully, you may add to the security of the account by adding characters to it.

When asked about the name of your first pet, you may write Bello and be done with it. However, it may be easy to find out about the name of the pet or try common pet names. Add characters to Bello, say BelloX5, and you can be certain that guessing or knowing won’t get an attacker far.

You may also type random characters, but need a way to access these when you require them.

Creating a password reset disk

Password Reset Disk creation
First step of creating a password reset disk in Windows

The second password recovery option requires a password reset disk. This needs to be created before you run into troubles signing in.

Note: you need an USB Flash Drive for that.

Here is how that is done:

  1. You need to sign-in with the local account that you want to create a password reset disk for.
  2. Insert a USB flash drive into the computer.
  3. Open the Start menu and type Control Panel.
  4. Pick Control Panel from the list of results.
  5. Type Create Password Reset in the Control Panel search box.
  6. Select Create a password reset disk from the results.
  7. Click Next to start the process.
  8. Type the current account password on the next page.
  9. Disconnect the USB Flash Drive in the end and keep it safe.

Anyone with access to the USB Flash Drive may regain access to the local user account. Obviously, you could encrypt the computer using a program like VeraCrypt to add another level of security to it. I highly recommend doing so.

What about you? Do you prefer local or Microsoft accounts on Windows? Do you have password reset options available in case you forget your password?

Firefox

Mozilla extends Firefox support on Windows 7 and 8 devices

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla has changed the original end of support deadline for Firefox on Windows 7 and Windows 8 devices. The organization’s original plan was to end support in September 2024.

This coincided with the release of the next Firefox ESR base and would allow Mozilla to unload legacy code from Firefox.

Byron Jourdan, Mozilla’s Senior Director of Product Management, confirmed on Reddit that support will be extended.

He wrote:

We’re planning to extend support for Windows 7 users past the currently planned date and give them better options for migrating to a new PC when they choose to.

The confirmation was posted during an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session of Mozilla’s leadership team on Reddit in June (spotted by Sören Hentzschel)

Jourdan does not provide specifics on the extension, only that support will be extended for as long as usage numbers are still high.

About 10% of Firefox users are still using Windows 7 or Windows 8 / 8.1 at the time of writing. That is significant enough for Mozilla to extend support.

Firefox users who run the browser on Windows 7 or 8 devices were moved to Firefox 115 ESR some time ago. This is the Extended Support Release, which offers better stability as new features are only introduced when the ESR-base changes.

This happens when Firefox 128 is going to be released on July 9, 2024. The previous ESR, 115 in this case, continues to be maintained for a bit longer.

Mozilla planned to drop support for it on September 3, 2024 with the release of Firefox 115.15.

While the official release schedule has not been updated yet, it seems likely that Mozilla will extend the end of Firefox 115 ESR.

Chromium-based browsers like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge are no longer supporting the old Windows versions.

Closing Words

Firefox users on Windows 7 or 8 will continue to receive security updates for the foreseeable future. Mozilla has yet to update the official support pages to reflect the change.

Do you use Firefox? Are you affected by the change?